How Blind and Visually Impaired Composers, Producers, and Songwriters Leverage and Adapt Music Technology
William Christopher Payne, Alex Yixuan Xu, Fabiha Ahmed, Lisa Ye, Amy Hurst · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20) · doi:10.1145/3373625.3417002
Summary
This qualitative interview study explores how 11 blind and visually impaired music creators — composers, producers, and songwriters — use and adapt mainstream and assistive music technologies to achieve their creative goals. The researchers recruited participants through the Assistive Music Technology Program at Berklee College of Music and FMDG Music School, conducting hour-long remote interviews covering participants' workflows, tools, workarounds, and barriers. Participants ranged widely in background: classically trained composers working with notation software like Finale and Lime, producers using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) such as Logic Pro X and ProTools, and songwriters using recording apps and physical instruments. The study provides detailed context on the three primary music representations — standard notation (visual scores), MIDI data (piano roll editors in DAWs), and audio waveforms — and how each poses distinct accessibility challenges. The paper documents a rich ecosystem of workarounds participants have developed, including third-party accessibility scripts (like those from Dancing Dots for Lime and Sonar), community-built tools like Flo Tools for ProTools with VoiceOver, and individual DIY solutions such as recording spoken chord charts as auditory displays. The study uses Braun and Clark's Thematic Analysis to organize findings into three broad themes: current music-making practices, successful strategies for overcoming barriers, and persistent accessibility challenges.
Key findings
Participants demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in bending inaccessible tools to their needs, but faced three persistent categories of barriers. First, accessible music software options are severely limited — only 3 of 83 reviewed accessible digital musical instruments target visual impairments, and products like Dancing Dots' Sonar and Lime lag behind mainstream alternatives in features while requiring specific (often outdated) operating systems and screen readers. Second, sighted assistance remains necessary at critical stages, particularly for composers preparing visual scores where layout corrections require drag-and-drop interaction. Five of seven composers described needing sighted help to finalize manuscripts. Third, accessibility features hit ceilings of expression — notation software could not represent non-Western scales or custom symbols, and DAW plugins are overwhelmingly inaccessible, with parameters invisible to screen readers. Participants reported that braille music knowledge, while valuable, is not prerequisite for all music creation roles — producers and songwriters often work effectively without it. The study found a strong culture of expertise-sharing, with participants serving as transcribers, technology mentors, and advocates within their communities.
Relevance
This research is significant for accessibility practitioners because it highlights how creative professions remain underserved by accessible technology despite music being an inherently aural art form. The findings challenge assumptions that making core features screen-reader compatible is sufficient — participants hit expressive ceilings where accessibility features could not cover all use cases, and third-party accessibility scripts created dependency on specific software versions that frequently broke with updates. The paper's design recommendations are broadly applicable: support multimodal interaction rather than replacing visual with audio alone, improve non-visual navigation of complex data structures, design for accessibility from the start with inclusive design principles, and maintain open communication between developers and end-users with disabilities. The documentation of how community-driven solutions (like Flo Tools) can complement and even drive commercial accessibility improvements offers a model for other creative technology domains.
Tags: blindness · music accessibility · assistive technology · screen readers · creative accessibility · inclusive design · braille music